Indonesia-based Ula isn’t your average startup.
For one, less than a year removed from its quiet inception in September 2019, it announced a $10.5 million seed round in June 2020. That alone was enough to mark it out as one of the most ambitious startups in all of Southeast Asia. Its backers only furthered this perception, with not one but two blue chip global firms—Sequoia Capital India and Lightspeed India Partners—leading the round. Both firms ordinarily write large cheques for growth-stage companies rather than backing fledgeling businesses.
Ula, though, is no ordinary project.
The company aims to digitise business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce in Indonesia and, eventually, the wider Southeast Asian region.